New inroads in preventing stem cells from triggering tumors
Baku, September 25 (AZERTAC). Japanese researchers have discovered that the origin of mouse-derived induced pluripotent stem cells has a large effect on their tendency to trigger tumors. Induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, derived from adult cells that have been reprogrammed so they can become any cell in the body, promise powerful new treatments for disorders of the brain and spinal cord — treatments free of the ethical concerns aroused by the use of embryonic stem cells. Before iPS cells can become a practical treatment, however, a solution must be found for their tendency to trigger tumors.
Japanese researchers have discovered that the origin of mouse-derived iPS cells has a large effect on their tendency to trigger tumors, according to Hideyuki Okano, MD, PhD, professor of physiology at Keio University School of Medicine, who presented the results at the Society for Neuroscience annual meeting here.
He and his colleagues, working in collaboration with researchers in the laboratory of celebrated stem cell researcher Shinya Yamanaka, MD, PhD, at the Institute for Frontier Medical Sciences at Kyoto University, cultured neurospheres — balls of neural tissue — from 36 iPS cell lines derived from mouse embryonic fibroblasts, tail-tip fibroblasts, gastric epithelial cells, and liver cells. The cells that did not cause tumors produced functional neurons, astrocytes, and oligodendrocytes. Also, transplantation of these “safe” iPS-cell-derived cells into a mouse model of spinal cord injury resulted in neurogenesis and myelination, as well as recovery of locomotor function, without tumor formation.
In contrast, transplanting neurospheres derived from “unsafe” iPS cells produced “a certain degree of functional recovery for a short period, but was eventually followed by teratoma formation within the spinal cord and deterioration of locomotor function,” Dr. Okano wrote.
Dr. Nakamura and his colleagues generated 36 induced pluripotent stem cell clones, and, like Dr. Okano, found that the origin of the cells was a crucial determinant of whether they would produce tumors when transplanted.
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